Centurion's Honor (Imperial Desires, Book One) by Nadia Aidan Page A

her go as she watched Olivia disappear into the villa.
    She was certain she’d done the right thing in warning Olivia off, not that she’d truly needed to. Claudius had no interest in Olivia, but Anan believed that was only so because Olivia was not yet a woman, not yet wealthy, not yet free.
    Anan wondered if Claudius’ opinion would change when Olivia changed. She more than wondered, she worried that it would. And if it did, Olivia’s infatuation for him would lead her to entangle herself with a man she was not skilled enough in the ways of love and desire to handle, a man who would only break her heart.

Chapter Eight
     
    “Olivia is besotted with your friend Claudius,” Cassius said as soon as she entered the baths.
    Her back was to him and Titus as she stuck her toe into the warm water of the bathing pool.
    “I am aware of that,” she remarked, though he’d not asked her a question.
    “Claudius seems to be taken with you instead.”
    She let out a long, weary breath. She and Claudius flirted, nothing more, there had never been more, there never would be.
    “You are mistaken. Claudius and I have only ever been friends.”
    She could almost hear the frown in his voice when he spoke, but still she did not turn around.
    “He is quite handsome.”
    Anan finally turned to meet his gaze. With a shrug she said, “I really hadn’t noticed.”
    “Liar.”
    She bristled. “ Yes ,he is handsome, that is obvious to all, but I have never been attracted to him, and the same is true for Claudius of me. We have only ever been friends.” Her lips thinned as her brow furrowed into a frown. “Is this how it will always be between us? A man smiles at me, touches me, and you hurl insults at me out of jealousy?”
    One dark brow lifted above deep blue eyes and that was when she realized what she’d said, what she’d implied.
    She spun around before either man could glimpse the blush that now flooded her cheeks.
    What she’d said, what she’d implied—as if this was anything more to them than easing physical lusts, as if she meant more to them than just the lover they now enjoyed on this military duty, when on the next they would simply find another.
    She could not believe her mistake. She’d spoken so foolishly, without thought.
    “Yes,” Cassius whispered beside her ear, his body pressed against hers as his hands wandered beneath her tunic to push it upward. “Yes, I’m afraid this is how it shall always be between us. I am a jealous man, a possessive one. That I share you with Titus is enough.”
    She did not speak, for she could not as he eased her now naked body into the pool.
    What he’d said, what he’d implied—she did not wish to dwell upon the greater meaning of it.
    No matter the stirrings in her heart for both men, it was foolish to think beyond this moment. They were soldiers who could be called away at a moment’s notice, who could die in the moment after that.
    It was foolish to think beyond this moment, but Anan’s heart was stubborn, the yearnings of her body seemed equally intractable.
    She had not experienced passion until Titus and Cassius had come into her life. She’d not experienced desire at its purest.
    Anan did not want to give that up, did not want to give them up, but she did not think she would have a choice in the matter, and neither would they. They were soldiers who would one day be commanded to leave, who would be happy to be gone from these barbarian lands, it was simply a matter of when they would go. She knew she was not enough to hold them there, to hold them there with her. And yet, if by some twist of fate she was wrong, that they wished to remain, Anan was wise enough to know they would not be allowed to stay. After all, they’d been sent to Siga against their wishes, she knew that much.
    “Something troubles you,” Cassius said from behind her, and Anan jerked in surprise. She’d been so deep in thought she had not realized he’d entered the pool as well, that his